Saina beats Thai teen Pornpawee to clinch Malaysia Masters title

TIL Desk Sports/ Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal came out with a spectacular performance on Sunday as she trounced Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in straight games to clinch the women’s singles title at the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament.

The top-seed registered a solid 22-20, 22-20 triumph over 19-year-old Chochuwong in a thrilling summit showdown that lasted 46 minutes. It was Nehwal’s first title victory since making a comeback from injury at the China Open in November last year. Earlier, Nehwal booked her place in the finals of the tournament after crushing Hong Kong’s YIP Pui Yin 21-13, 21-10 in a one-sided semi-final clash of the women’s singles event that lasted around half-an-hour.

Saina had endured an injury-plagued 2016 season. She sustained an intra-articular injury (inside the joint) to her right knee which affected her progress in the badminton event at the Rio Olympics 2016 where she lost in the group stage. Subsequently, she also underwent a knee surgery at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute in Mumbai before returning to action.